Method and system for navigating through a repository of displays

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a method and system to enable a user to navigate through a repository of graphical displays and maintain the knowledge of the location of any display in the repository at any time. The purpose of the navigation activity could be to enable a user to create a slide presentation by searching, selecting, downloading and compiling slides from a central slide repository located on a computing network. In accordance with this invention, graphical displays are arranged in a repository in a grid-like configuration such that a list of groups of displayed in one direction and the specific displays within that group are listed in another direction (preferably, this second direction is perpendicular to the direction of the list of groups of displays). These groups of slides are arranged in set of directories and sub-directories that are linked to each directory. A hierarchy of the display repository displays the particular directory and sub-directory path taken by a user to retrieve any particular graphical display. With this invention, a user can easily navigate through the display repository and select displays and can easily determine their location in the display repository at any time during a search.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] This invention relates to the field of image displays on computersystems and in particular to a method and system for displaying largeamounts of display information organized in huge hierarchies. Thedisplay of the organizational structure or hierarchies is special inthat regardless of the item of information that is currently on thedisplay, that information is also visible at the location where thatitem of information is stored in the total hierarchy.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The use of graphical displays to convey information is animportant part of the activities in most businesses and corporationssuch as those in the mass communication industry. Two such industries,which rely heavily on graphical images, are the journalism industry andthe advertising industry. In business, executives make presentations todirectors, managers conduct meetings with staff, salespersons makepresentations to potential customers, doctors conduct meetings withnurses, lawyers make presentations to juries, and so on. A great manyprofessionals conduct and attend meetings and presentations regularly.Much effort therefore goes into creating and delivering effectivepresentations and preparing for and conducting effective meetings. Inaddition to the business world, many individuals use graphical images incommunications. Much of the conveying of graphical images occurs throughthe use of computers and computing networks.

[0003] These displays contain information related to the nature of theparticular display. The pieces of information can be referred to asobjects and can include text, charts, graphs and pictorial images. Eachdisplay contains one or more of these objects. Each display containsinformation about the objects contained on the display. This informationincludes information about any hotspot (hyperlink) objects contained onthe display. This information is created by software during the creationof the display and is stored such that the information is transparent tothe user.

[0004] In a computing environment, there are many graphical displaysthat appear on a user's machine. There are countless types of displaysin any computing environment and include typical displays such as webpages and presentation slides. The challenge of enabling users to searchthrough these displays to find the particular information that theydesire increases as the amount of information available increases. Nomatter whether the information resides on a user's local computer or ifthe user is accessing the information via a computing network, the sameneed arises regarding improved tools to help navigate in large amountsof information. A good example of large amounts of information broughttogether and made available to everyone is the World Wide Web.

[0005] The World Wide Web, also referred to as the Internet, is a globalcomputing environment in which all information (text, images, audio,video, computational services) that is accessible from the Internet canbe accessed in a consistent and simple way by using a standard set ofnaming and access conventions. Internet users can access computing sitesall over the world. A user can connect from his/her machine to thousandsof Web servers simply by “clicking” on an image or by entering aspecific address. Users can connect to many different types of systemsand not be aware of the system differences. Users can also access manydifferent types of information such as text, images, audio, video andcomputational services. The user can perform all of these tasks using asingle web-browser that can access this information. The ability toaccess information via the Internet is the result of hyperlinks thatconnect this seemingly infinite body of information together. Ahyperlink is text or an image in a web site that can be accessed inorder to have some action performed. During this process of accessing ahyperlink, the user typically moves a pointing device such as a mouseover certain areas referred to as hotspots, and then clicks the mouse tosignal the initialization of the desired action.

[0006] When a user is performing this exercise on the internet, the usermay often find him or herself in a situation where they feel lost in themidst of a hierarchy of web pages. After clicking multiple times on anumber of hotspots with hyperlinks the user may end up at some locationthat is unknown to the user. In addition, the user may not know how toget back to the original starting point. Many users may identity thisexperience. Along the way when repeatedly clicking hotspots on thescreen, the user will pass through pages where the graphical look andfeel and colors of the display remain constant. The look, feel andcolors all comprise the ‘image’ for one website. Then the user willclick on and get pages with a different look, indicating that they havegotten into another website. The transfer from on site to another siteis transparent to the user, and sometimes not desired. Under allcircumstances the tour taken is following a path of some nature ofrandomness, and certainly without any visibility of a hierarchy. Theexperience and feeling of getting lost is very likely to happen any timea person spends 5 minutes on the internet.

[0007] A Web Browser usually provides a user with the ability to use a‘Back’ button that takes the user back to the previous screen. However,it is possible for some web applications or web pages to disable that‘Back’ button. Furthermore, the back button may be the only means a userhas to prevent getting lost during the search for information.

[0008] The WWW is heavily based on using the ‘Back’ button in thenavigation process. The use of the ‘Back’-button is more a consequenceof ‘ease of information development’ rather than is it desired from anend user ‘navigational ease of use’ point of view. In navigation theuser should always go forward, never go back. Going back is nonproductive and waste of time. However, many users have gotten accustomgoing back and therefore they may not imagine anything else.

[0009] To really design for navigation takes a lot more than basic textediting. With basic text editing you are able to produce a ‘web’ ofpages that link to one another. The original WWW in the very early daysgrew out of basic text editing. The need also arose to createnavigational menus, which could also be done in smaller systems by basictext editing. The need for these navigational menus contributed to theintroduction of frames in Web Browsers. Frames allow a menu residing ina frame to stay visible on the screen after the user selects an item onthe menu that will cause some new informational document appear inanother frame in the same window. However the direction of internettechnology has moved slightly away from frames as it is not possible fora user to bookmark specific information found in a frame and have thecontext of the other frames book marked simultaneously. Most recentimplementations of web applications tend to work without frames butstill implement the menu kind of functionality provided by frames. Theresult appears, to the user, as if the document has inside knowledgeabout the hierarchical structure above the document. Some applicationsare even so clever that they can distinguish which navigation path theuser took to get down to the document. This procedure is useful in caseswhere one particular document may reside multiple places in a menuhierarchy. This is very different from navigation in a file system on acomputer disk where the documents are physical, while in menuhierarchies menu items are only imaginary documents implemented aspointers to physical documents.

[0010] The described principle of avoiding use of frames has thenon-appealing and to the user maybe surprising effect that the entirewindow is refreshed including the menu when the user selects a menuitem. Another disadvantage of this method is that it takes extra time torefresh the entire screen including the menus on the screen.

[0011] In the described way the ‘web’ of pages and documents, on theinternet have become more and more structured over the years. Toolsbecame available to create menus in hierarchies and a lot of otherthings making the non technical web editor able to take advantage ofanimation and more and more other facilities provided by web browsers,the web browsers themselves also becoming more and more advanced. LotusNotes and Domino from Lotus Development Corporation are examples oftools that provide structure, in terms of menus and views, both for usewith web technology and for use as applications running on a localcomputer.

[0012] Slide presentations are one area where it is desirable tonavigate through a large volume of slides another to select slide for apresentation. However traditional slide presentations tend to beindividual files with poor integration between multiple presentations.For example there is not much possibility to navigate in traditionalslide presentations, like a hotspot on one slide in one presentation cantake the user to another slide in another presentation. Traditionalslide presentations tend to be prepared for a sequential walk throughfrom the first slide to the last slide.

[0013] Even with the developments in this technology, there remains aneed for a method and system that can enable a user to navigate in awell organized hierarchical graphical display repository looking forinformation for various purposes, but maintain the visibility of theoverall hierarchical structure at any given instant.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0014] It is an objective of the present invention to provide a methodand system to search for graphical displays contained in a repository ofgraphical displays.

[0015] It is a second objective of the present invention to provide amethod and system to determine the location of specific location of adisplay stored in a display repository.

[0016] It is a third objective of the present invention to provide amethod and system to store graphical displays in a repository such thatthe location of a specific display in the repository can be easilydetermined.

[0017] It is a fourth objective of the present invention to provide agraphical display storage method and system such that a user can easilylocate displays stored according to such method and system.

[0018] It is a fifth objective of the present invention to provide amethod and system that to enable a user to navigate through a repositoryof displays and maintain knowledge of the location of any displaycurrently being viewed by the user.

[0019] The present invention provides a method and system to enable auser to navigate through a repository of graphical displays and maintainthe knowledge of the location of any display in the repository at anytime. The purpose of the navigation activity could be to enable a userto create a slide presentation by searching, selecting, downloading andcompiling slides from a central slide repository located on a computingnetwork. A user may want to give a presentation on content that iscurrently on a computing network location such as a web site on theinternet. The user may not feel comfortable talking about the enormousnumber of slides that the site might have on a particular subject.Therefore, the user would need to review the slides and selectparticular slides for the presentation. This review process wouldrequire a user to search through the numerous slides in the repository.This task could be tedious and would require the user to track thereviewed slides and the path of the search and review.

[0020] The present invention is a method and system for navigatingthrough a repository of graphical displays in which the displays arestored in a specific group and in a specific sequence in that group. Thedisplays are stored such each group of displays has a specific identityand a specific location in the repository. In addition, each display inthe group is identified by a specific location on the identified groupwhere the display belongs. For any display, the group information andthe specific location information would available to the user during thenavigation. As a result of the knowledge of the group and sequencelocation, a user could determine a location of a display in therepository.

[0021] The method of the present invention provides a user with theability to navigate through a presentation slide repository, downloadselected slides and convert these slides into a format of a presentationslide program such as PowerPoint®. In this method, the navigation anddownload slide steps can be performed in a browser environment. Theconversion step can be performed with software located in the usermachine.

[0022] This invention introduces the idea that the ‘Back’ button (to agreat extent) should never be used within a website where the inventionis implemented. When clicking a hotspot that takes the user out of thisstructured web site a new browser window is opened leaving the optionfor the new (unstructured) web-site to take you where it wants, butleaving the structured website available for you where you left it.

[0023] Another important aspect of this invention is that you can get animpression of the target page for a hotspot without taking the time toclick and go there. The idea is that a thumbnail image of the targetscreen pops up when the mouse is moved over the hotspot. This is savingtime. It is especially useful when a person is looking for someinformation that he has seen before and he wants to visually recognizethe information before taking the time to going there. Imagine thatthere are 64 hotspots or buttons on a page that have pop up thumbnailslike described. A person can quickly move the mouse over them and findwhat he is looking for.

[0024] This invention provides other key features that are not presentin similar tools. First of all it helps the user avoid getting lost ininformation. Secondly the invention integrates multiple presentations,providing navigational links from any presentation slide to anypresentation slide as defined during slide development, which thetraditional presentation tools do not. These characteristics are furtherdescribed in the following.

[0025] While reading detailed content, it is at all times visible wherethe user is in the overall structure. The user can get to any othercontent by directly going there without needing to climb up a hierarchy,or to use the ‘Back’ button. This invention provides navigation byvisual recognition of graphics popping up instead of (only) text stringson menus or in the body of a document. The invention uses a so called‘main navigator window’. This kind of window is also widely known by theterm ‘site map’. The name site map is inherited from the internet whichis based on internet sites, each with it's own unique address. The mainnavigator window displays only structure, no informational content. Thestructure displayed is hierarchical menu structure in which the user canopen sub-structures several times and get down to the lowest level. Thisprocess is similar to opening sub-folders in a file system on a disk ofa computer.

[0026] At the lowest level of the main navigator the user can select amenu item that opens a new window with a two-dimensional structure thatprovides direct access to a thousand documents or any other number thatthe window may be designed for. The invention is based on thistwo-dimensional navigation functionality. The invention is also based onthe combination of the two-dimensional window in combination with themain navigator and in combination with visual recognition of pop-upgraphics for other documents, before actually taking time to open thesedocuments and in combination with the fact that the ‘back button’ of thebrowser or in general the computer application is intended to not beused.

[0027] Instead of the main navigator and the two-dimensional navigationstructure being two different windows, there may be two different framesin the same window, or there may be techniques to avoid frames asdescribed earlier, meaning that they may be precompiled into eachdetailed document itself or they may be compiled together at run time,i.e. the time where the user actually selects to read a detaileddocument. The two-dimensional navigation structure has especially beendeveloped for organizing presentations, and presenting slides. Howeverconsidering one presentation slide representing one document, thenavigation techniques apply to any type of document.

[0028] With specialized software, conventional personal computersprovide effective platforms for creating graphical displays for use in avariety of applications. One primary application of graphical displaysis in conducting meetings and delivering presentations. In thisapplication, graphical displays in the form of presentation slides areused to convey information. Currently available slide presentationprogram modules can turn a personal computer into a customizedpresentation system for creating and delivering slide presentations.Generally described, these presentation systems provide a speciallydesigned, user-friendly, pallet of tools to assist in the creation ofpresentation slides to be subsequently displayed to an audience. Thesepresentation systems also allow the slides to be sequentially presentedto an audience, point-by-point and slide-by-slide, with color,animation, audio, and transition effects that enrich and enliven thepresentation.

[0029] This invention represents a user interface where individualpresentation slides have become their own document entities, while thepresentation tools consider one presentation with multiple slides thesmallest document entity. With this invention the slide displays may bepart of a larger set of displays. For example, a user can assume that aserver stores a repository of 1,000,000 PowerPoint slides previouslyexported from PowerPoint into the JPEG graphical images format. Thisinvention allows for structured navigation in such repositories ofslides. In general slides could be referred to as ‘documents’.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0030]FIG. 1 depicts data processing equipment a system that can beutilized to implement the present invention.

[0031]FIG. 2 is a diagram of a computer network over which messages andtransactions may be transmitted.

[0032]FIG. 3 is a diagram of the architecture of a typical slidepresentation program.

[0033]FIG. 4 is a diagram of a configuration of displays stored in arepository in accordance with the present invention.

[0034]FIG. 5 is an illustration of a display repository directory.

[0035]FIG. 6 is an illustration of an actual display stored in arepository according the present invention.

[0036]FIG. 7 is a diagram of the navigating display used during thenavigation through the display repository.

[0037]FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of the steps in the implementation of themethod of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0038] In accordance with the present invention, a slide presentationprogram executes on a computer, preferably a general-purpose personalcomputer. FIG. 1 and the following discussion are intended to provide abrief, general description of a suitable computing environment in whichthe invention may be implemented. With reference now to FIG. 1, there isdepicted a pictorial representation of data processing system 10 whichmay be used in implementation of the present invention. As may be seen,data processing system 10 includes processor 11 that preferably includesa graphics processor, memory device and central processor (not shown).Coupled to processor 11 is video display 12 which may be implementedutilizing either a color or monochromatic monitor, in a manner wellknown in the art. Also coupled to processor 11 is keyboard 13. Keyboard13 preferably comprises a standard computer keyboard, which is coupledto the processor by means of cable 14. Also coupled to processor 11 is agraphical pointing device, such as mouse 15. Mouse 15 is coupled toprocessor 11, in a manner well known in the art, via cable 16. As isshown, mouse 15 may include left button 17, and right button 18, each ofwhich may be depressed, or “clicked”, to provide command and controlsignals to data processing system 10. While the disclosed embodiment ofthe present invention utilizes a mouse, those skilled in the art willappreciate that any graphical pointing device such as a light pen ortouch sensitive screen may be utilized to implement the method andapparatus of the present invention. Upon reference to the foregoing,those skilled in the art will appreciate that data processing system 10may be implemented utilizing a personal computer.

[0039] Although not required, the invention will be described in thegeneral context of computer-executable instructions, such as programmodules, being executed by a personal computer. Generally, programmodules include routines, programs, objects, components, datastructures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particularabstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciatethat the invention may be practiced with other computer systemconfigurations, including hand-held devices, multiprocessor systems,microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, network PCs,minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. The invention may alsobe practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks areperformed by remote processing devices that are linked through acommunications network. In a distributed computing environment, programmodules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.

[0040] The personal computer may operate in a networked environmentusing logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as aremote computer. The remote computer may be another personal computer, aserver, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common networknode, and typically includes many or all of the elements relative to aconventional personal computer. The logical connections depicted includea local area network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN), Suchnetworking environments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-widecomputer networks, intranets and the Internet.

[0041] As mentioned, the method of the present invention may beimplemented in a global computer network environment such as theInternet. With reference now FIG. 2, there is depicted a pictorialrepresentation of a distributed computer network environment 20 in whichone may implement the method and system of the present invention. As maybe seen, distributed data processing system 20 may include a pluralityof networks, such as Local Area Networks (LAN) 21 and 22, each of whichpreferably includes a plurality of individual computers 23 and 24,respectively. Of course, those skilled in the art will appreciate that aplurality of Intelligent Work Stations (IWS) coupled to a host processormay be utilized for each such network. Any of the processing systems mayalso be connected to the Internet as shown. As is common in such dataprocessing systems, each individual computer may be coupled to a storagedevice 25 and/or a printer/output device 26. One or more such storagedevices 25 may be utilized, in accordance with the method of the presentinvention, to store the various data objects or documents which may beperiodically accessed and processed by a user within distributed dataprocessing system 20, in accordance with the method and system of thepresent invention. In a manner well known in the prior art, each suchdata processing procedure or document may be stored within a storagedevice 25 which is associated with a Resource Manager or LibraryService, which is responsible for maintaining and updating all resourceobjects associated therewith.

[0042] Still referring to FIG. 2, it may be seen that distributed dataprocessing system 20 may also include multiple mainframe computers, suchas mainframe computer 27, which may be preferably coupled to Local AreaNetwork (LAN) 21 by means of communications link 28. Mainframe computer27 may also be coupled to a storage device 29 which may serve as remotestorage for Local Area Network (LAN) 21. A second Local Area Network(LAN) 22 may be coupled to Local Area Network (LAN) 21 viacommunications controller 31 and communications link 32 to a gatewayserver 33. Gateway server 33 is preferably an individual computer orIntelligent Work Station (IWS) that serves to link Local Area Network(LAN) 22 to Local Area Network (LAN) 21. As discussed above with respectto Local Area Network (LAN) 22 and Local Area Network (LAN) 21, aplurality of data processing procedures or documents may be storedwithin storage device 29 and controlled by mainframe computer 27, asResource Manager or Library Service for the data processing proceduresand documents thus stored. Of course, those skilled in the art willappreciate that mainframe computer 27 may be located a greatgeographical distance from Local Area Network (LAN) 21 and similarlyLocal Area Network (LAN) 21 may be located a substantial distance fromLocal Area Network (LAN) 24. That is, Local Area Network (LAN) 24 may belocated in California while Local Area Network (LAN) 21 may be locatedwithin Texas and mainframe computer 27 may be located in New York.

[0043] Although the present invention can apply to the search for anytype of display, the techniques of this invention will be described inthe context of slide presentations. Referring first to FIG. 3, there isan illustration of an architecture of a slide presentation program 40that can be used in conjunction with the present invention. A slide is adiscreet collection of information, including visual information such astext, graphic images, video, or animation. A slide may also compriseother information, including sounds and interactive information, such ashyperlinks. The slide presentation program 40 provides an author withthe ability to create and edit a set of one or more “slides” 41 and to“present” or display one or more of the set of slides. The set of slidesis referred to as a “slide presentation” 42. A slide presentation 42 isgenerally stored on a computer storage medium, such as a disk drive. Thecomputer storage medium may be directly connected to the computer thatperforms a sideshow, or it may be connected to a remote computer on alocal area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN) 43, such as theInternet.

[0044] The slide presentation program 40 includes a slide show module 44that contains program code for controlling an electronic slide show.During an electronic slide show, the slide show module 44 retrieves aslide 41 and displays the slide on an output medium, such as a displaymonitor. The slide presentation program 40 also includes a PPCentralupdate module 39 that controls updating of the Central slidepresentation 42. The techniques and features of the present inventioncould be located in the Central update module 39.

[0045]FIG. 4 illustrates a storage configuration for slide presentationin a slide repository that will enable a user to navigate through theslide repository in accordance with techniques of the present invention.As shown, this configuration is a grid-type configuration that has acolumn 45 containing sets of slide presentations. Each slidepresentation will have an identifier that points to a specific locationin the repository. The illustration in FIG. 4 shows seven differentslide presentations. Each slide presentation contains several slides 46.These slides are stored sequentially in the order that they would appearduring an actual slide presentation. As shown, the number of slides ineach presentation will vary. In addition, each slide will have anidentifier that will indicate the slide presentation in which that slidebelongs and the number of that slide in the sequence of slides in thatpresentation. In FIG. 4, slide 47 is the sixth slide in the third slidepresentation. Therefore, this slide could have an identifier that hastwo fields to identify the particular slide. One field could contain a 3indicating the third slide presentation. A second field could contain a6 indicating the sixth slide in that presentation. Although each slidewould some type of identifier, this information would generally not beaccessible to the user.

[0046]FIG. 5 shows a hierarchical configuration of a repositorycontaining graphical displays. The creation of this storage repositoryhierarchy along with the actual storage configuration of the slides isfurther described in disclosure AUS920010506, the contents of which areincorporated herein by reference. As shown, this hierarchicalconfiguration has a main folder 50. This folder contains the highestlevel of display categories. The displays in the repository fall underone of the folder categories. Each folder has a directory 51 withentries that describe the display categories. In this hierarchy, eachentry in the main directory 51 contains a set of sub-directories 52.Each of these sub-directories contains a sub-directory 53. In FIG. 5,sub-directory 53 contains entries that are display set categories. Thesecategories 54 are the locations for sets of displays. Each display in aset contains multiple graphical displays.

[0047] Referring to the main folder 50, display category 55 has thetitle “Buy and Sell”. The display categories are actually directories.Each directory has links to a set of sub-directories 52. A directory canhave fields containing pointers to the various sub-directories underthat directory. For example, the Buy and Sell directory 55 links toeight sub-directories 53. These sub-directories have various titles thatdescribe the contents of these sub-directories. Selecting thesub-directory titled “e-Market Solution Delivery” has links to yetanother set of sub-directories. In this particular illustration, byselecting one of the entries in this last set of sub-directories 54, theuser has reached the lowest point of the sub-directory hierarchy. Atthis point, the user can access particular slide presentations relatedto the topic described in the directory title. The user will be able toselect and view a graphical display. In this configuration, somesub-directories will more sub-directories than other sub-directories.The number of directories and sub-directories will depend on the numbergraphical displays for the topics under that general directory topic.The actual sets of graphical displays will be located at the end of thesub-directory string for the particular directory.

[0048]FIG. 6 shows an actual graphical display in accordance with thepresent invention. As shown the display contains substantive information60. However, the display also contains vertical control buttons 61 andhorizontal control buttons 62 that will enable a user to select adisplay for viewing. With these sets of buttons, a user can move fromdisplay to display by clicking the particular buttons. The verticalbuttons control the selection of the display presentation such as aslide presentation. The horizontal buttons control the selection of aparticular display in the presentation.

[0049]FIG. 7 shows the particular vertical and horizontal controls thatappear on each display that enable a user to search through and select aparticular slide. As shown, there is a column of buttons 60 thatcorrespond to the number of slide presentations in a particularsub-directory. A row of buttons 61 corresponds to the number of slidesin a particular slide presentation. Referring to FIG. 4, there would beseven buttons in the column indicating seven slide presentations in thissub-directory. For the third slide presentation, there would be 8buttons in the row 61. Each button would correspond to the particularslide in the sequence. If the user wanted to view the sixth slide 47,the user could click the sixth button and this sixth slide would appearon the display. If the user wants to view another slide on a differentpresentation, the user can click the button in the column for thatparticular presentation and then click the button in the row thatcorresponds to the particular slide, which the user wants to view. Thebuttons corresponding to the slide presentation and the specific slidewill be lit to indicate to the user the actual slide that the user isviewing.

[0050]FIG. 8 illustrates the steps involved in navigating through theslide repository and selecting and viewing a particular slide. Theinitial step 70 is to display the set of main folders that are at thetop of the hierarchy. A user viewing the display of folders can move thecurser over each folder. As the curser moves over the folder, thedirectory for that folder is displayed as a pop-up image. Step 71displays the directory from the folder selected by the user. Again, asthe user moves the curser over the entries in the directory, thesub-directory for that entry is displayed. This sub-directory cancontain another sub-directory or there could be a list of displaycategories. Step 72 determines whether the entries in the directory linkto a sub-directory or the list of display categories. If the link is toanother sub-directory, that sub-directory is displayed in step 73. Ifthe link in the sub-directory is not to a sub-directory, then that linkis to a list of display categories. The construction of the displayrepository is such that a list of display categories is at the end ofthe repository directory hierarchy. At the end of a path of directoriesand sub-directories is the list of display categories. A “no” in step 72indicates that this is the end of the sub-directory hierarchy andtherefore there is a list of display categories. If step 72 determinesthat the end of the directory path has been reached, the next step 74would be to display the list of display categories.

[0051] Referring back to step 73, which displays the entries in asub-directory, if the user selects an entry, there is another determinein step 75 whether the selected entry links to another sub-directory orto a list of display categories. This step is similar to step 72 except,step 75 makes the determination between two sub-directories and step 72makes the determination between the initial directory and an initialsub-directory. If the determination in step 72 is that there is anotherin this sub-directory for an entry in the present sub-directory links toanother sub-directory. If the determination in step 75 is that there areno more sub-directories, the user has reached the end of the directoryhierarchy and that there is a list of display categories for entry inthis last sub-directory. At each selection step, the entries in adirectory or sub-directory will pop-up prior to the user making aselection.

[0052] As previously mentioned, step 74 displays to list of displaycategories. At this point, the user can select one of the categoriesfrom the display. Step 76 will show the different sets of displays forthis display category. Referring back to FIG. 5, “Scenario Plan to Buildor Join e-Markets” is a category in the list of display categories. Thisone category can contain several display presentations. This displaywill be similar to FIG. 6. The display will contain a vertical row ofbuttons and a horizontal row of buttons. Each button in the verticalcorresponding to a display presentation and each button in thehorizontal corresponding to display in the particular presentationindicated by a selected vertical button. Typically, an initial displayfor a selected display category will show the first display of the firstpresentation. The user can then use the vertical and horizontal rows ofbuttons to navigate through that list display categories.

[0053] Once the user selects a particular display presentation, step 77will display a horizontal row of buttons corresponding to the number ofdisplays in that particular display presentation. While in a particularpresentation, as the user moves the curser over a particular horizontalbutton, a thumbnail of that display will appear. A user can view theentire set of displays by simply moving the curser over the horizontalrow and reviewing the thumbnail images. To view the display in full sizethe user can click the horizontal button corresponding to the desireddisplay and the full size display will appear as illustrated in step 78.After the user has viewed one display, step 79 allows the user to haveoption of selecting another display to view. If the user wants to viewanother display on the same display presentation, the user selects thedisplay in step 80 by clicking another horizontal button. After the userhas made the selection, the new display will appear on the screen.

[0054] The real advantage of the present invention is seen when userwants to view displays in another presentation. This situation willoccur when the determination in step 79 is that the user wants to viewdisplays from another presentation. The user has the option of selectinganother display presentation from the set of presentations without backscrolling using the “Back” button on the display screen. This abilityprovides new techniques for navigating through the repository ofdisplays. The can user the vertical buttons to view and select a newdisplay presentation to view. As the curser moves over the vertical rowof buttons, the thumbnail of the first display in each presentationappears on the screen. This first display often gives the title ordescription of the presentation. The user can make a determination aboutinterest in viewing that display presentation by view the thumbnail ofthe initial display. If the user determines that they want to viewanother display presentation, the method moves to steps 81 and back tostep 76 where the horizontal buttons for the newly selected presentationappear on the display screen. If in step 81, the user wants to searchfor or view displays from another category of display presentationsregardless where this new category is in the repository, the can returnto step 70 with the need to back track through the path initially takento get to the location in the repository of the presently vieweddisplay.

[0055] As stated, there are several advantages of the method of thisinvention over the prior navigation systems. In addition, if the userjust wants to view the location in the in the repository of thepresently viewed displays, the user can click the “X” on the displayscreen and return to the hierarchy display in FIG. 5. The user can thenreturn to the location of the presently viewed display be clicking thelocation of the hierarchical display that is the location of thepresently viewed displays. Another feature of the present invention isthat the path taken by the user to reach the location of the presentlyviewed displays from steps 70 to 76 is highlighted on the hierarchicaldisplay in FIG. 5. With this invention, a user can quickly determine thelocation in the repository of a display or display presentation. Theuser can also access any display with relative ease and speed. Thethumbnail display feature also enables a user to quickly scan and view aseries of displays without bring up each individual display.

[0056] It is important to note that while this invention was describedin the context of slides as displays and slide presentations as displaypresentations, the navigations concepts and techniques of this inventioncan apply to any graphical displays stored in a repository in theconfiguration of a display repository illustrated in the presentinvention. It is also important to note that while the present inventionhas been described in the context of a fully functioning data processingsystem, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the processes ofthe present invention are capable of being distributed in the form ofinstructions in a computer readable medium and a variety of other forms,regardless of the particular type of medium used to carry out thedistribution. Examples of computer readable media include media such asEPROM, ROM, tape, paper, floppy disc, hard disk drive, RAM, and CD-ROMsand transmission-type of media, such as digital and analogcommunications links.

[0057] Having thus described the invention, what we claims as new anddesire to secure by Letters Patent is set forth in the following claims.

We claim:
 1. A method for navigating through a repository of graphicaldisplays and maintain knowledge of the location of any display currentlybeing viewed comprising the steps of: displaying a main folder ofdirectories in the repository from which a user can select one of thedirectories to navigate through to review graphical displays; displayingthe complete hierarchical information for a selected directory from themain folder of directories, hierarchical information includes thecategories of graphical display sets for a selected entry in thedirectory; displaying a viewing screen of the graphical display sets fora selected graphical display set, the viewing screen containing a row ofbuttons corresponding to the number of display sets in the selectedcategory and a second row of buttons corresponding to the number ofdisplays in a selected display set; and displaying a graphical displaycorresponding to one of buttons selected from the row of buttonscorresponding to the number of displays in a selected display set. 2.The method as described in claim 1 wherein said step of displaying thecomplete hierarchical information for a selected directory from the mainfolder of directories further comprises: a) displaying a set of entriesfor a selected directory from the main folder of directories; b)determining whether the selected entry is a sub-directory; c) when theselected entry is a sub-directory, displaying entries from the currentsub-directory; d) determining whether a selected entry in the currentsub-directory is a sub-directory; e) when the selected entry in thecurrent sub-directory is a sub-directory, displaying entries from thecurrent sub-directory; and f) repeating steps (d) and (e) until aselected entry in a sub-directory is not a sub-directory.
 3. The methodas described in claim 1 wherein said step of displaying a graphicaldisplay comprising initially displaying a thumbnail view of a selectedgraphical display prior to displaying a full view of the selectedgraphical display.
 4. The method as described in claim 3 furthercomprising the step of displaying a full screen version of a selectedgraphical display following the initial thumbnail view of a selectedgraphical display.
 5. The method as described in claim 3 furthercomprising for each directory that is a sub-directory the step ofdisplaying the set of entries in that sub-director when a cursor movesover that entry.
 6. The method as described in claim 2 furthercomprising the step of displaying a set of categories of graphicaldisplay groups, each group containing sets of graphical displays.
 7. Themethod as described in claim 2 wherein said the step of displayingentries for a selected directory or sub-directory further comprisesreading pointer information located in the selected directory andreturning objects of the pointer.
 8. The method as described in claim 7wherein entries from a directory or sub-directory are displayed when acurser moves over a directory or sub-directory.
 9. The method asdescribed in claim 2 wherein a set of entries for an entry selected froma directory or subdirectory are displayed when the selected entry is adirectory, sub-directory or display category set.
 10. The method asdescribed in claim 1 wherein said step of displaying the completehierarchical information for a selected directory from the main folderof directories further comprises simultaneously displaying each selecteddirectory and sub-directory as a window on the same display screen. 11.The method as described in claim 10 further comprising highlighting eachselected entry in each selected directory or sub-directory.
 12. Acomputer program product in a computer readable medium for navigatingthrough a repository of graphical displays and maintain knowledge of thelocation of any display currently being viewed comprising: instructionsfor displaying a main folder of directories in the repository from whicha user can select one of the directories to navigate through to reviewgraphical displays; instructions for displaying the completehierarchical information for a selected directory from the main folderof directories, hierarchical information includes the categories ofgraphical display sets for a selected entry in the directory;instructions for displaying a viewing screen of the graphical displaysets for a selected graphical display set, the viewing screen containinga row of buttons corresponding to the number of display sets in theselected category and a second row of buttons corresponding to thenumber of displays in a selected display set; and instructions fordisplaying a graphical display corresponding to one of buttons selectedfrom the row of buttons corresponding to the number of displays in aselected display set.
 13. The computer program product as described inclaim 12 wherein said instructions for displaying the completehierarchical information for a selected directory from the main folderof directories further comprises: a) instructions for displaying a setof entries for a selected directory from the main folder of directories;b) instructions for determining whether the selected entry is asub-directory; c) instructions for when the selected entry is asub-directory, displaying entries from the current sub-directory; d)instructions for determining whether a selected entry in the currentsub-directory is a sub-directory; e) when the selected entry in thecurrent sub-directory is a sub-directory, instructions for displayingentries from the current sub-directory; and f) instructions for movingfrom one sub-directory to another sub-directory until a selected entryin a sub-directory is not another sub-directory.
 14. The computerprogram product as described in claim 12 wherein said instructions fordisplaying a graphical display comprise instructions for initiallydisplaying a thumbnail view of a selected graphical display prior todisplaying a full view of the selected graphical display.
 15. Thecomputer program product as described in claim 14 further comprising theinstructions for displaying a full screen version of a selectedgraphical display following the initial thumbnail view of a selectedgraphical display.
 16. The computer program product as described inclaim 14 further comprising for each directory that is a sub-directoryinstructions for displaying the set of entries in that sub-director whena cursor moves over that entry.
 17. The computer program product asdescribed in claim 13 further comprising instructions for displaying aset of categories of graphical display groups, each group containingsets of graphical displays.
 18. The computer program product asdescribed in claim 13 wherein said the instructions for displayingentries for a selected directory or sub-directory further comprisesinstructions for reading pointer information located in the selecteddirectory and returning objects of the pointer.
 19. The computer programproduct as described in claim 18 further comprising instructions fordisplaying entries from a directory or sub-directory when a curser movesover a directory or sub-directory.
 20. The computer program product asdescribed in claim 13 further comprising instructions for displaying aset of entries for an entry selected from a directory or subdirectory,when the selected entry is a directory, sub-directory or displaycategory set.
 21. The computer program product as described in claim 12wherein said instructions for displaying the complete hierarchicalinformation for a selected directory from the main folder of directoriesfurther comprises instructions for simultaneously displaying eachselected directory and sub-directory as a window on the same displayscreen.
 22. The computer program product as described in claim 21further comprising instructions for highlighting each selected entry ineach selected directory or sub-directory.
 23. A system for navigatingthrough a repository of graphical displays and maintain knowledge of thelocation of any display currently being viewed comprising: a localcomputer; a display repository housed in a containing graphicaldisplays, aid displays being arranged into sets of displays and storedin said repository in a directory hierarchical tree configurationcontaining a series of sub-directories that link to the location of adisplay in said repository; a computer network for establishingcommunication between said local computer and said display repository; anavigator program for maneuvering through the directories andsub-directories of graphical displays; and control buttons on a screenof a local computer to provide selecting a specific graphical displayfrom a set of displays in a display group.
 24. The system as describedin claim 23 wherein said display repository resides in a server machineon said computing network.